Coming from developers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it’s not too surprising that The Blood of Dawnwalker is a sprawling open-world adventure (albeit on smaller scale). In fact, following its latest reveal, Rebel Wolves revealed that it’s turned out even bigger than expected, with a story that can take about 50 hours on average to finish. But you can bypass all of that if you want.
Speaking to Eurogamer, lead quest designer Rafał Jankowski confirmed that you can attempt to beat the game after the Prologue. How? It ties into Coen’s mission to save his family within 30 days and 30 nights. That entire process allows him to become stronger, gather allies, and even disrupt the vampire overlords’ infrastructure.
But you’re not beholden to that time limit. “It is possible to miss a lot of content. After the Prologue, there is nothing stopping you from going straight to Brencis’ castle and trying to defeat the big bad vampire and his vampire officers. It is difficult, of course, but it is physically possible – the content is there waiting for the players. The enemies are there waiting for the players. It is absolutely possible to skip everything, like all these quests,” said Jankowski.
“If you are skilled enough… I don’t know, I didn’t personally try it, I’m not exactly sure how difficult that is. But the idea was to make it difficult enough for this not to be a path that we encourage the players to do on their first try. But we are hoping to see this done soon after the release of the game, because with many players out there, many of them are probably skilled enough or patient enough to try and do it. But it is possible.”
While this could mean sub-30-minute speedruns of players completing the game, it’s something that he’s looking forward to. “Again, we do put some thought into making it difficult, but I’m sure if it can be done, it will be done.” The real question is: How will this affect what’s supposed to happen after the 30 days are up? A question for closer to release.
Of course, you might want to play the game as intended on the first run, if only to see what Brencis and his goons will throw at you as Coen’s infamy rises. Bounty hunters are one thing, but creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz also confirmed that “in the extreme version, he can just put the city on lockdown.”
Continuously pushing against the vampire leadership, even if it makes things less convenient, has its upsides, like the rebellion “respecting” you more. Whether this means they’ll lend aid or become more likely to help out in certain scenarios remains to be seen.
The Blood of Dawnwalker launches on September 3rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out the PC requirements and Coen’s cool-looking wolf transformation for getting around at night.